The thermal behavior of bituminous coal, coconut shell, and their blends
during pyrolysis process was investigated in this study. The experiments
were conducted at different weight percent of coconut shell (10, 20, 30, 40,
and 50 wt%) and temperatures ranging from 30°C to 900°C. The DTG data for
fuel blends showed additive profiles that reflected behavior of the individual
fuel. When coconut shell was mixed with coal under weight percent of
20–50%, the nature of peaks in DTG profiles changed from higher to lower
in the third stage reaction, shifting devolatilization temperature from 400°C
to 450°C. This led to a decrease in the maximum rate of mass loss from 10.6%
to 7.4%/min. However, the 10 wt% blend caused a slight increase in the
maximum rate of mass loss from 10.6% to 11%/min. In addition, co-pyrolysis
kinetics of fuel blends indicated that the blending of coconut shell with coal
at BBR higher than 30% can increase the value of activation energy and
induce slow pyrolysis of blends.